Chalk Art at Leadership Lab 2014Worship at Leadership Lab 2014
Where in the world is Pastor Ben this week? Some of you heard a little bit about the summer camp that I am the director of in the announcements last Sunday at Bethel Lutheran Church.
I am the co-director of a camp called Leadership Lab (as in laboratory). It is a one week camp that is over 55 years old. Pastor Dick Hanson started Leadership Lab with 8 students. This year we will have close to 400 students participating. We rent the campus of Augustana College in Rock Island, IL (One our ELCA colleges) and we essentially take over the school.
We accept students beginning at the summer of their 8th grade year going into their freshman year of high school and it goes all the way through college. There is even an adult level! It is a stair-step model and a student has the opportunity to begin as they enter high school and keep coming back all the way through college. Many have.
I first attended Leadership Lab in 1985 when the camp had about 125 participants. I went all the way through high school and that is when Leadership Lab ended. (We added the college level later.) In 1989 I was asked to be on staff and have been going ever since then. If you didn’t do the math, I have been going for 30 years or 2/3’s of my life. Leadership Lab is one of the most important things ever to happen to my faith life. All my children have attended and I hope one day my grandchildren will go too.
It is a week of learning, faith-building and relationships. We teach students the practical side of leadership and planning and in the process we provide a safe place for life-long Christian friendships to form. Yes, there is faith formation as well. We worship twice a day and the students actually look forward to praising God!
This is my 8th year as one of the directors and it is a privilege to serve God in this capacity. It is also a blessing to serve Christ’s Church this way as well. As God formed my faith at Leadership Lab, I now ‘pay it forward’ so that other students may learn and grow as I did.
This week will also be a family reunion for me. I have built life-long friendships with many of our staff at Leadership Lab. When we get together, it is like a family (of God) reunion. It is blessing for me to be associated with such great people.
I will be posting pictures this week so that you can get a glimpse of what I do. Keep checking back here or on the Bethel Lutheran Church Facebook page.
For those who call Bethel home. . . I am holding all of you in my heart too.
In the Lutheran Church some people make the sign of the cross and some don’t. Either is acceptable. From the brand of Lutheranism I come from no one ever made the sign of the cross. My guess would be that it would appear too “Roman Catholic.” Today we don’t worry about such things and I am glad about that.
I started wonder about the Lutheran background of making the sign of the cross when I found a wonderful blog post by Joel Miller who is not a Lutheran but wrote about the Lutheran history and theology of making the sign of the cross. I found it very interesting; I am hoping you will too. Below is part of that article. . .
In reading Letters and Papers from Prison, I was surprised to discover Dietrich Bonhoeffer used the sign of the cross in his daily prayers. “I’ve found that following Luther’s instruction to ‘make the sign of the cross’ at our morning and evening prayers is . . . most useful,” he said in one letter. “There is something objective about it. . . .”
Not to mention Martin Luther instructing every Lutheran since his own day to “bless yourself with the holy cross,” as he says in his Small Catechism. Owing to my ignorance, this was also a surprise. But in fact the German Reformer directed the sign’s use not only for morning and evening prayer, but also for baptisms and ordinations.
Adding to my curiosity, in the same letter Bonhoeffer cautioned, “[D]on’t suppose we go in very much for symbolism here!” And also said this: “[M]y fear and distrust of religiosity have become greater than ever here.” According to my upbringing, the sign of the cross was nothing but symbolism and religiosity. Yet Bonhoeffer signs himself. Why?
To begin with, signing oneself is more than mere symbolism. It is, as Bonhoeffer said, “objective.” There is something tangible and actual about tracing the points of the cross over one’s body. It goes back to something covered in C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. Christians, (the senior demon informs the junior,) “can be persuaded that the bodily position makes no difference to their prayers, for they constantly forget . . . that they are animals and that whatever their bodies do affects their souls.”
What we do physically affects us spiritually. Whether it’s lowering our gaze, raising our hands, bending our knee, or crossing ourselves, physical actions have a qualitative, spiritual effect.
Next, signing oneself is more than mere religiosity. It’s communion with God. At bottom, the act of faithfully signing the cross is an act of prayer, one that is physical, a remembrance, a benediction, a collect that gathers every trial, worry, and fear and consigns it to the care of Christ. It can also be used to express gratitude at a meal, joy at a blessed occurrence, repentance in a moment of sin, resistance in a moment of temptation, and faith when undertaking any task (with emphasis on any).
It’s always been this way in the church. “At every forward step and movement,” Tertullian wrote in the year 204, “at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the sign [of the cross].”
This is not some superstitious innovation of the Middle Ages or the empty religiosity Bonhoeffer opposed. It’s a foundational aspect of Christian identity. Making the sign of the cross says to yourself (and anyone watching) that you belong to Jesus, that you belong to God. When faced with temptation, wrestling with a bad attitude, or feeling grateful for the mercies of God, is there anything better?
Identifying as Christian by using the sign of the cross is a physical and demonstrative way to communicate our reliance on God and our identity in Christ.
Like any religious practice it can be a vain empty thing or full of personal and spiritual meaning. If you make the sign of the cross, great! If you don’t, great! I just want you to understand why we do what we do. . . if we do it at all!
Mother Emmanuel AME ChurchChild’s Drawing of Mother Emmanuel AME ChurchA spontaneous memorial at Mother Emmanuel AME Church
I am sure that some people no longer want to talk about the tragedy in Charleston, S.C. last week. “It was bad and it was last week.” I am not so sure we should be so quick to put this behind us and “move on.” Not because I have some political axe to grind but rather the sobering fact of how broken our world really is.
Whether it is racial hate, cultural hate, individual hate or even self-loathing hate… violence is not the answer. Violence is never the answer to anything and neither is hate.
The violence against our own (family of God) reminds me of other mass shootings in the recent past: Sandy Hook Elementary school, Fort Hood, Columbine High School, the Washington Navy Ship Yard, the Aurora, Colorado movie theater and the list goes on.
When I try to make sense of tragedies like these, I come to conclusion that there is no way to make sense of them. Sure we can describe what happened and what might have caused some to act in such a cruel and vicious way but it does not bring satisfaction or resolution and maybe it shouldn’t.
Killing fellow brothers and sisters in Christ at a Bible Study only because of their skin color is sickening. There is no way to make sense of something like that.
The Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America wrote an open letter to us Lutherans. Here is what she wrote. . .
It has been a long season of disquiet in our country. From Ferguson to Baltimore, simmering racial tensions have boiled over into violence. But this … the fatal shooting of nine African Americans in a church is a stark, raw manifestation of the sin that is racism. The church was desecrated. The people of that congregation were desecrated. The aspiration voiced in the Pledge of Allegiance that we are “one nation under God” was desecrated.
Mother Emanuel AME’s pastor, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, was a graduate of the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, as was the Rev. Daniel Simmons, associate pastor at Mother Emanuel. The suspected shooter is a member of an ELCA congregation. All of a sudden and for all of us, this is an intensely personal tragedy. One of our own is alleged to have shot and killed two who adopted us as their own.
We might say that this was an isolated act by a deeply disturbed man. But we know that is not the whole truth. It is not an isolated event. And even if the shooter was unstable, the framework upon which he built his vision of race is not. Racism is a fact in American culture. Denial and avoidance of this fact are deadly. The Rev. Mr. Pinckney leaves a wife and children. The other eight victims leave grieving families. The family of the suspected killer and two congregations are broken. When will this end?
The nine dead in Charleston are not the first innocent victims killed by violence. Our only hope rests in the innocent One, who was violently executed on Good Friday. Emmanuel, God with us, carried our grief and sorrow – the grief and sorrow of Mother Emanuel AME church – and he was wounded for our transgressions – the deadly sin of racism.
I urge all of us to spend a day in repentance and mourning. And then we need to get to work. Each of us and all of us need to examine ourselves, our church and our communities. We need to be honest about the reality of racism within us and around us. We need to talk and we need to listen, but we also need to act. No stereotype or racial slur is justified. Speak out against inequity. Look with newly opened eyes at the many subtle and overt ways that we and our communities see people of color as being of less worth. Above all pray – for insight, for forgiveness, for courage.
Kyrie Eleison.
The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton Presiding Bishop Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
I also received an email from Pr. Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Southern California. This is what he wrote:
How do we respond to such evil? The answer is that we must do the exact opposite of what the gunman wanted to accomplish. That way he doesn’t win.
The gunman’s intention was to divide people, so we must unite in our grief. His intention was to show hatred, so we must show love. His intention was to kill, so we must protect life – all of it. His intention was to do evil, so we must respond by doing good His intention was to start a race war. We must be peacemakers. His intention was to further segregation, so we must model integration in our churches, His intention was to do an injustice, so we must stand for justice And his intention was to do harm so we must be agents of healing.
I am not going to tell you what to do or how to feel. I do hope that you take all of these words and commendations to heart. We have been reminded in the most horrible of ways that we live in a broken world and that we have been called to bring the Kingdom of God.
“Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
This is the season of graduations. Yes, people do graduate from various institutions at different times of the year but early June is when the vast of majority of people (young and old) graduate from schools.
A week ago today (Thursday) I picked up Carl’s high school diploma from his school. I have now looked at it several times and I am proud of him. Earlier this week at Bethel School we had both 5th grade graduation and pre-school promotion. Pre-school promotion isn’t exactly graduation but they are moving up in the world!
For those graduating, it is an exciting time. This is the time graduates celebrate a big accomplishment but also a time to look forward to something new. For some it is more school and for those who are older a time to find a new job, career and vocation.
Do you remember how you felt when you graduated from high school, college, or graduate school? I remember how excited I was to finish seminary and move to Las Vegas, NV to serve at Community Lutheran Church. I thought I knew it all and I was going to a dynamic church. Truth be told it was and still is a dynamic church, however I quickly learned I did not know everything. However it was an exciting time in my life!
Education of all types is important. I am reminded of Proverbs 18:15 that says, “The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge; the ears of the wise seek it out.” At any age of life we have things to learn. There may not be a graduation day for many of us, but we still have stuff to learn.
I read a lot. Sometimes it is audio books in the car and on the treadmill, sometimes it is an e-book and sometimes it is a book with paper pages! I enjoy learning something new about God, and the universe He created.
I encourage you to be a life-long learner. Don’t be stagnant or rely only on your experience. There is much to discover. But let us also encourage the younger people in our sphere of influence to find something they love and learn all they can about it. Passion is the key to self-study—even for us!
Before I end, I want to pray for all the graduates!
Heavenly Father,
I lift up to you everyone who is graduating from some level of school this year. We especially lift up our 5th grade graduates from Bethel School: Laurel, Esther, Riku, Mila and Elliot. May all graduates find a passion in a field of study so that they may share that knowledge with the rest of the world one day. We also ask that you inspire us to be life-long learners as well. Help us to dig deeper into your Word and learn more about you and the world around us.
Summer is upon us! It may not be technically summer until June 21st, but the unofficial beginning of summer (at least for me) begins when the kids get out of school at the beginning of June.
What is your plan for the summer? Are you going anywhere? Does your routine change? Or. . . is summer the same for you as the rest of the year except you do everything in short sleeves?
Regardless of what your plans (or non-plans) are for the summer months, I want to encourage you to continue to pray (or start praying) on a regular basis. Prayer is important to every well-grounded Christian. Talking with God frequently reminds us that we are under “His jurisdiction and power.” Taking the time to connect with God allows us to bring our concerns, joys and troubles to the One who can actually do something about them!
There is a great story in John Maxwell’s book; Partners in Prayer:
“In the summer of 1876, grasshoppers nearly destroyed the crops in Minnesota. So in the spring of 1877, farmers were worried. They believed that the dreadful plague would once again visit them and again destroy the rich wheat crop, bringing ruin to thousands of people.
The situation was so serious that Governor John S. Pillsbury proclaimed April 26 as a day of prayer and fasting He urged every man, woman and child to ask God to prevent the terrible scourge. On that April day all schools, shops, stores and offices were closed. There was a reverent, quite hush over all the state.
The next day dawned bright and clear. Temperature soared to what they ordinary were in midsummer, which was very unusual for April. Minnesotans were devastated as they discovered billions of grasshopper larvae wiggling to life. For 3 days the unusual heat persisted, and the larvae hatched. It appeared that it wouldn’t be long before they started feeding and destroying the crops.
On the fourth day, however the temperature suddenly dropped, and that night frost, covered the entire state. Result – it killed every one of those creeping, crawling pests as surely as if poison or fire had been used, It went down in the history of Minnesota as the day God answered the prayers of the people.”
That is an awesome story! But understand, it was NOT the first and certainly was NOT the last time that Almighty God answered the prayers of his people.
Whatever you are going to do this summer, include prayer. The simple act of prayer can change you first and foremost and the world around you.
In the Lutheran Church—Pentecost kind of seems like a minor holiday. It is not as important as Easter or Christmas, but it should be remembered. It is more on the lines of Epiphany or Reformation Sunday. (If you have no idea what I am talking about, just read on. . .) I am not saying Pentecost isn’t important so much as we treat it like a second tier church holiday.
For the record, I think we should really celebrate AND believe in the promise given at Pentecost. God gives the Holy Spirit to earliest believers and they did some pretty amazing things. Not only were miracles performed but also more importantly (I believe) those earliest Church members experienced a boldness to go tell others about Jesus.
None of this happened under their own power. God gave the Holy Spirit to spur them into a wildly abundant life! It is nothing they could have ever planned for or even imagined, but God knew.
Even when Jesus was preparing to die, he said this, “But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor (the Holy Spirit) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” John 16:7 Can you imagine? Jesus is telling the disciples that it is good for him to go away so the Holy Spirit can come. I doubt they felt that way at the time but we all can see what happened when the Holy Spirit was given. There was a divine power that inspired people risk everything to tell others about Jesus.
What does this mean for us? This is not a “what a great story from the past to think about” moment. THIS PROMISE IS FOR US AS WELL! We as followers of Jesus are given the Holy Spirit. The question becomes this: Will we ask for a greater portion of the Spirit or just muddle through?
Life is a struggle, more for some, less for others. There is no doubt about that. Who are we living for? Only you can answer that. God already knows. I have learned that living for myself doesn’t really work out most of the time… ok, all the time. I want what God wants for me. I don’t want to muddle through life. I want God to shine through me and use me for His purposes. I want more of the Holy Spirit so that I can be bold for Jesus.
Pentecost Sunday is the reminder that we too can have that same power to live an abundant life… completely surrendered to Jesus.
I have always been intrigued by the dedication of missionaries of the 19th century. When they left their home for another country it usually meant they were never coming back.
That reminds me of the conversation between a chicken and a pig:
The Chicken says: “Hey Pig, I was thinking we should open a restaurant!”
Pig replies: “Hmmm… maybe, what would we call it?”
The Chicken responds: “How about ‘ham-n-eggs’?”
The Pig thinks for a moment and says: “No thanks. I’d be committed, but you’d only be involved.”
Missionaries were not just involved in ministry they were completely committed!
I just recently read about Ludwig Nommensen who was a German born Lutheran missionary. He traveled to Sumatra to begin mission work with a tribe of people.
The village chief welcomed Ludwig and said, “You have 2 years to learn our customs and convince us you have a message worth hearing.” After 2 years, the tribal leader asked the missionary how Christianity differs from the moral rules and traditions of the tribe.
“We already know what is right,” the chief explained. “We too have laws that say we must not steal, or take our neighbor’s wives, or tell lies.”
The missionary replied, “That’s true. But my God supplies the power needed to keep those laws.”
This startled the chief. “Can you really teach my people to live better?”
“No, I can’t,” responded Ludwig. “But if they receive Jesus Christ, God will give them the strength to do what is right.”
The chief invited him to stay another 6 months, during which Ludwig preached the gospel and taught villagers how the Holy Spirit works in the lives of Christians.
“You can stay as long as you want,” the chief finally announced. “Your religion is better than ours, for your God walks with men and gives them strength to do the things He asks.”
Believe it or not, we are in a “post-Christian” society. What does that mean? We are not the dominant religion that we once were in the United States. Many people mourn and lament that the Church has a lot less influence today than it did 30 years ago.
However, I don’t see that as a bad thing at all. Why? Because it forces us to evaluate everything we do as a church and the same situation calls every Christian to assess what they truly believe. (Or at least it should.)
Although Jesus promises us that “the gates of Hades will not overcome” the Church, he does not guarantee that individual churches will always remain open. Many churches are closing their doors because they are not willing to see that the world is changing quickly and our methods must change to meet the needs of a broken world. (Notice: I did NOT say that our message changes.)
So what does that have to do with Ludwig Nommensen? We are missionaries in our own neighborhoods and community. We can no longer assume the people around us share the same trust in God. We don’t need to go to the ends of the earth to share Jesus with people.
The tribal chief gives us some GREAT advice. Get to know people first. Get to know what they value and what is important to them BEFORE sharing the love of God. Why is that important? Pr. John Maxwell said it this way, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
Maybe you never thought of yourself as a missionary before but maybe you should. Exciting things happen when you trust God to be His spokesperson. . . but only after you have spent time getting to know someone first.
Are you as busy as I am? I think a lot of you are. If you are not working, then you are working around the house. When God commanded that we take a “Sabbath day of rest” it was meant for us. God knows us better than we know ourselves. God wants us to take a break at least once a week because it is good for us.
I found another article kqed.org that expresses this better than I can. . .
Lost Weekends
By Richard Swerdlow
“Have a nice weekend,” the checkout clerk said on a Friday afternoon.
Her casual comment got me thinking about my weekend plans: laundry, clean the garage, deal with the piled-up mail, car oil change. Return library books, wash windows, put out the recycling, get a ladder and change that burned out light bulb. Gym, fix the leaky faucet, bank, haircut. Not to mention answering the 200 emails in my inbox, picking up the dry cleaning.
So, much as I’d like to follow her advice, I’m just too busy to have a nice weekend.
And I’m not the only one. Everyone I know crams too much into their weekends. Between a full-time job and a part-time life, weekends end up filled with errands there’s no other time for. But even so-called recreational activities are high-pressure. Binge watch all those TV shows I need to catch up on, work up a sweat at the gym, plow through the ginormous Sunday New York Times, make a dent in my Netflix queue. Honestly, it’s a statement about our culture that running in a marathon can be considered a leisure-time activity. Weekends are so tiring, I’m beginning to feel relieved when Monday rolls around.
When did weekends become the new weekdays?
That clerk’s comment has me realizing what I’m forgetting to add to my ever-expanding, never-checked-off, must-get-done-this-weekend list: relax.
So, this weekend, for once, I might just blow off both the laundry and the laundry list of errands. And I’ve decided it’s OK to let that bulb stay burned out a little longer, if it prevents me from burning out. I am letting go of my need to schedule every last scrap of time, that nagging feeling if I’m not squeezing something out of every single second, I’m wasting my precious weekend.
I picked up an item at the store that Friday that wasn’t on my shopping list — but it was something I needed. The realization I’m allowed to rest.
A little down time isn’t a waste of a weekend — it’s what weekends are for. After all, even God rested on the seventh day.
So, this weekend, I’m following the advice of the check-out clerk. I’m going to have a nice weekend. I feel more relaxed already.
Have a nice weekend.
With a Perspective, I’m Richard Swerdlow.
Richard Swerdlow works for the San Francisco Unified School District.
That is sound advice, not only from Richard Swedlow but also from God. On Monday, Rachel and I went to Point Reyes. It was the first “Sabbath day” that I have had since moving. No dishes, no projects, no taxes. Just a day off. It was very relaxing. . . the way God intended days off to be. Try it sometime!
A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. Proverbs 17:22
Often what is going on inside of us is reflected on our faces specifically in our eyes, our brows and on our lips.
Solomon writes that a joyful heart is a good thing, but what if you don’t have one at the moment? Have you ever heard the line, “fake it until you make it?” Well, let me share with you one man’s journey of faking it until he made it (happen.)
The Power of a Smile (From KQED.org website)
Les Bloch isn’t a smiley face kind of guy. So he decided to give it a try. My, how things changed.
By Les Bloch
Look in the mirror. I mean right now. Are you smiling? I didn’t think so.
I have the same problem and I’ve been working on it. Ever since I was a kid watching Sesame Street, I knew I was supposed to smile. But smiling, if not practiced daily, can seem like kind of a chore.
I recently started thinking about smiles when I joined a Zydeco band. The band I was in had broken up, and I wanted to keep playing, keep my chops up. Zydeco is a unique musical experience for a drummer. Most of the songs are two steps, shuffles, straight beats and a few waltzes thrown in. The endings are cued with a lick from the accordion player. So I was practicing these songs on my practice set and caught sight of myself in the mirror. I noticed that when I play drums, my face looks more like I’m passing a kidney stone than having a good time. And this is Good Time music. So I had to start practicing my smile too.
Just getting the old face muscles to form a smile took some effort. I noticed it made me look younger, and at the gig, people would smile back when they saw me smiling. I started smiling in the grocery store, when I was at the bank, when I greeted customers in my day job. Then I started trading smiles with strangers on the street. I thought maybe they’d think I was crazy but I was just working some muscles in my face and people started reacting in a positive way. Friends asked me if I’d won the lottery. I started feeling better about my job and my life.
My wife started looking at me suspiciously.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
My fake smile was turning into a real one. Bert and Ernie were right. I keep practicing my smile, mostly in the car now. I try to smile for a full minute or maybe through a song on the radio.
I just had my first grandchild and now all I have to do is think of her. I want her to see my face smiling back at hers. I want her to heed Bert and Ernie’s advice. I want her to see a genuine smile, one that comes from inside of me and radiates out like a Zydeco two-step on a Saturday night.
With a Perspective, I’m Les Bloch.
Les Bloch is a writer and construction project manager.
This clearly does not address the devastating effects of depression and the neurochemical issues related to depression. However, I do believe that some people could stand to smile a little more. Your “crushed spirit” might need a little “good medicine.”
